BROWNELL, OCTOBER 14, 1902
Voluntary statement of Cornelius M. Brownell, late captain, Company D, Twenty-sixth Volunteer Infantry.
I am a resident of Burlington, Vt. My business address is 195 College street, Burlington.
I was appointed a captain July 12, 1899, and was assigned to command Company D July 17, 1899. I went, with the company to the Philippines on or about September 5, 1899, sailing from San Francisco on or about September 25, 1899. After various stops we disembarked at Iloilo, Island of Panay, October 28, 1899, and took station the same day at Jaro. After the active operations in the region of Jaro during the month of November, 1899, which accomplished the disintegration of the Filipino army on that island, I was ordered by the department commander to take command of the district of Concepcion, the northeastern district of the island, with headquarters at Sara. My command consisted of Company D, Twenty-sixth Infantry. Being situated about 65 miles from General Hughes's headquarters and cut off from all communications with reenforcements, the enemy in the district immediately assumed an aggressive attitude. Soon discovering that a very strong outpost was located at a small barrio overlooking the town, I ordered a force on the morning of December 19, 1899, to capture and destroy the town, which was called San Ponongbolo.
This expedition was entirely successful, and a complete surprise to the enemy, and so aroused the insurgent leaders in the district that on the early morning of December 22, 1899, at about 5.30 o'clock, my garrison was desperately attacked by a force consisting of practically all the insurgents in the district, in which were about 200 rifles and 300 bolo men. This attack was repulsed after a vigorous fight, and an investigation of the affair after the attack showed conclusively to my mind that the padre of the town was in communication with the insurgent forces, and was aware of the attack about to be made, and he secretly departed the town in the early evening before the attack, taking with him his valuables and the female inmates of his house. I constantly became more convinced of this during the following three months' service in that district, and learned that the padre was endeavoring in every possible way to create disloyalty and further the cause of insurrection in order that his personal prerogatives might not become abridged by our supremacy. I further learned that he was not a regularly admitted priest, but, on the contrary, was a native who had usurped the office of priest when his predecessor fled.
On March 1, 1900, I took command of the District of Baratoc Viejo [Barotac Viejo], Banate, and Anileo [Anilao], with headquarters at Banate, having as a permanent garrison Company D, Twenty-sixth Volunteer Infantry, being reinforced at different times by detachments and companies from the Twenty-sixth Infantry, Eighteenth Infantry, and Thirty-eighth Infantry. Acting on the information I had gained as to the attitude of the padre at Sara, I soon discovered that the padre at Banate was acting in a similar manner. By this time I had also learned that the so-called Principales, a class composed of the rich inhabitants, mostly mestizos, owned all the land, enjoyed all the education and liberty, and while they resided in the towns and readily took the oath of allegiance to the United States if permitted to do so, were furnishing the sinews of war to the insurgents in the field, and that probably 90 per cent of the Filipinos are dependent upon this class, either directly or indirectly, for a living. It was discovered that the power of the padres and that of the Principales was exerted to the
utmost to prevent the success of the American forces, because success of the American arms meant freedom and education to all Filipinos alike, and thus the power of the aristocracy would be gone.
During my service in the field I reported directly to the department commander, and received orders in like manner from him, and was at all times foot loose, and freely made expeditions into districts remote from my own, sometimes being furnished a gunboat to transport my command.
While on one of these expeditions, about the middle of October, 1900, to the district of Sara-at this time commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Van Horn, 18th Infantry-I was absent for about eight days, and upon my return to my station at Banate I discovered that the inhabitants were acting in a disloyal and insubordinate manner, and every indication went to show that some insurgent plot was on foot. After a few days' investigation I discovered that during my absence the insurgent leaders of the district had held a meeting within the town, and the presidente had undertaken to organize a bolo company with which to massacre the garrison in the near future, the plan being to have several parties arranged for the men on a particular night in order that the garrison might be as much divided as possible, and at a certain signal, to be given by the presidente, each house to be surrounded and the soldiers dispatched.
The natives implicated were arrested, and some time afterwards the presidente, who had broken his parole and escaped in the night, was recaptured, and was sentenced to serve ten years in Billabid prison at Manila. Meantime the padre at Banate, Raphael Murillo, fled, and I discovered that he had been warned by one Augustine dela Pena, a priest of Molo, and had been directed to escape to the lines of the enemy in the field. This Padre Augustine was held to be the acting head of the church on the island, and a relative of the insurgent chief, Quintin Salas, who operated in the region of my district.
Serving directly under the orders of the department commander, I was frequently at his headquarters, and knew a great deal about his military information bureau and the secrets in their possession. It was conceded at headquarters that Padre Augustine, while professing to be an Americanisto, and in constant communication with General Hughes's office, was nevertheless the treasurer of the insurgent funds, and practically the head of the insurrection on the island of Panay. It was well known that he was a war traitor, and that if papers and funds in his possession belonging to the insurgent army could be procured the insurrection could be readily crushed.
This man was delivered into my hands on board the gunboat Paragua on November 23, 1900, and taken to my station at Banate under a guard of soldiers not belonging to my company. He was landed at Banate the following morning, and while I was absent during that day with my company and a detachment of Company F, Twenty-sixth Infantry, he signed a statement confessing his guilt and addressed to General Hughes, and copy of which is hereto attached and marked "A." This statement was handed me upon my return to the post that day, and within a few days the man was brought from his cell and told plainly that he would be compelled to deliver to me the funds in his possession belonging to the insurgent forces, and papers known to be in his possession implicating others who had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. This he refused to do, and denied that he was a sympathizer with the insurgent forces; denied that he had any dealings whatever or any communications of any sort whatever with them, or that he knew anything about their cause. Being in possession of positive evidence of his guilt, and knowing that there was on deposit in the city of Iloilo a large sum of money awaiting his order at the mercantile house of Hoskyn & Co., the banking houses of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and the Banquo Espanol, I insisted that he would be obliged to deliver orders for this money to me, and endeavored in every possible way to reason with him and show him the uselessness of further attempts at deception.
If I recall correctly, I held daily conversations with him for a period of three or four days, endeavoring in every possible way to influence him to surrender the papers and money in his possession without compulsion, promising him fair treatment on the part of the Government. He became constantly more and more insolent, and began to suspect that I would not use force, so that he finally denied everything in the statement he had previously made, said that he did not understand what it was, that it was written in English and he was told to sign it, and he thought it was a letter to be used to inform his friends where he was. He gradually became so insolent that it became necessary to adopt a firm course of action with him, and he was given a limited time in which to decide whether he would surrender the money and papers demanded without compulsion or whether he would compel me to resort to
the latter method. The time given him having expired without result, he was brought in my presence and that of other officers and enlisted men, and told that he would be blindfolded and the water cure administered until he acceded to my request. He again, and more insolently than ever, denied that he had any knowledge of the matters of which I spoke, and the water cure was administered for a short time, I being constantly near him and advising him at every stage that the moment he admitted what I knew to be true, and delivered the goods I knew to be in his possession, harsh measures would cease. In about three or four minutes he informed me that if I would cease he would speak. I immediately commanded that he be allowed to sit up, and he said that he did have some money in his possession, but that it belonged to the Pope at Rome, and that therefore he could not give it to me.
Endeavoring in all this proceeding to act in a gentlemanly manner, but firmly, I told him that the idea of compulsion was abhorrent to an American officer, but he would be obliged to cease falsehood and deliver the papers and moneys to me immediately, or the cure would be continued. He still insisted that it belonged to the Pope at Rome, and being assured that for the time being the department commander, General Hughes, was the pope on that island, and that he would be obliged to deliver the money into his hands, the cure was continued. In a few moments he became convinced that I was in positive possession of the evidence I claimed, and again asked to be allowed to sit up. This request was immediately granted him, and he said that he did have some money belonging to the insurgent cause. I then asked him to sign orders for it, at the same time asking him, in as kindly a manner as possible under the circumstances, if he would not accede to my whole request without further use of force. This he agreed to do.
I allowed him, as he was in a very excited and desperate mental condition, and was a man of low vitality, large and fat, to retire to his quarters and rest. This was of my own volition; and before he was led away he was asked if he would sign, without further resort to force, the orders which he had promised to sign. This he agreed to do. He was offered at this time, and during his whole confinement, food, but he declined in most instances, sometimes accepting and at other times insolently refusing it. After he had rested at some length, I sent for him and asked him to sign the orders, and he, in the presence of officers and a few enlisted men, declined, saying that he had no money, and that what he had said before he now retracted. He was immediately threatened with a repetition of the water cure, and after some further endeavor on my part to get him to sign these orders, I directed that he again be led to the room in which the water cure had been previously administered, which was the kitchen in my quarters. As preparations were being made, and he became convinced that I meant what I said, he signed the orders. A little later his cassock was examined, and in it were found the original deposit receipts on the banks and the house of Hoskyn & Co., together with numerous papers, receipts for money from different citizens and churches, which were delivered by me to the then judge-advocate of the Department of the Visayas, together with other papers and evidence collected by me bearing on this case, and implicating some of the prominent natives in the city of lloilo and that vicinity. One of these papers was a receipt, which read, so near as I can remember, as follows, being written in Spanish:
"We, the undersigned, commissioners of the revolutionary army on the Island of Panay, acknowledge to have received from Senor ___ ___, presidente of Jaro, Panay, the sum of 10,000 pesos, which sum, with others of like amount, has been raised by the church at Jaro for the use of the revolutionary army."
This was signed, if I recall correctly, by two commissioners. The original of this paper can be found in the records of the Department of the Visayas. The presidente mentioned in that paper was then presidente of Jaro, and, as such, was an American official.
I was ordered to ascertain from the prisoner the whereabouts of one Quintin Salas, a colonel in command of a subdivision of the insurgent army. When this prisoner was sent for I explained to him my orders, and asked him to tell me, on promise of my shielding him, should he tell me the truth.
He was in a dejected mood, despondent, thoroughly discouraged. He told me that he had better be dead, and wished he might die; he had nothing further to live for, and expected if the American Government did not hang him the insurgent forces would, and that he realized he had been a traitor to both sides, and a traitor to his church, and upon exposure of his traitorous conduct while acting as the head of the church in the island he would certainly be deposed and disgraced in the church; and he repeatedly called on the Virgin Mary to take his life. I gave him until a certain hour to consider whether he would disclose this hiding place or not, and explained to him how I knew he was in possession of this information. At the expiration of
this time he declined to disclose Salas's whereabouts, and again, more emphatically, said he had better be dead than living, anyway, and hoped that he would die before morning.
I directed him to be conducted to a house apart from the headquarters, in order that he might be quietly and carefully dealt with, as the night guard was on at headquarters and there were a large number of enlisted men within hearing. A guard was established to prevent all natives from approaching the house, as it had come to my knowledge that the whereabouts of Padre Augustine were known to the insurgents, and a desperate effort would be made to retake him.
Exhausting every resource in mv endeavor to influence him by argument into giving me the information desired, I threatened him again with the water cure, and he promptly told me that he would welcome it, as he did not want to live, and was completely and thoroughly discouraged. I hoped up to the last moment that he would weaken before it became necessary to use any force whatever, but continued the preparations, and finally ordered that the cure be again administered to him, and stepped into an adjoining room for a moment, with instructions that the cure should be given, but the moment he would disclose the name of the town only, it should be stopped. In a very short time, probably not to exceed a minute and a half, I was warned by a disturbance in the room where the prisoner was that something was wrong; and upon entering the room the man was dead.
I immediately sent for the post surgeon, and within five minutes-the exact time I can not give-the post surgeon arrived and notified me that the man was dead, but not drowned, as he had not died from the effects of the water cure, but from fatty degeneration of the heart, and from complete collapse and mental anguish over the exposure of his criminal life. At my request he immediately attempted to resuscitate him to life. He told me it was useless, as water was not the cause of his death. This verbal statement he made to me, and made a certificate certifying to the cause of his death, which I filed, with a notice of the death of this prisoner, in the office of the assistant adjutant-general of the Department of the Visayas.
I presented the papers obtained, and orders for the money, in person to the judge-advocate of the department at Iloilo, and the department commander ordered the provost-marshal at Iloilo, the officer in command of the secret police of Iloilo, the judge-advocate general, and myself to visit the banking houses mentioned above and procure the money.
Within a few days all the padres in the vicinity of headquarters at Iloilo held a convention and sent a delegation to the department commander, requesting permission to appoint a peace commission to proceed to the interior, and endeavor to influence the insurgents under arms to surrender. This permission was granted by the department commander, and such committee visited the insurgent chiefs in the field, and after conferences which extended over several weeks the commander of the insurgent army surrendered.
During the period in which these conferences were going on, by direction of the department commander I was in the field in the region of the greater part of General Delgado's army, and when it seemed probable that the peace commission would fail, active operations were pushed against the enemy, and their property, and especially the property of the rich hacienda owners who lived in Iloilo, all of whom were supporting the insurgent army in this particular region. This hastened the final decision of the insurgents to surrender, aud on or about January 29, 1901, at a suggestion from the adjutant-general, I joined him at Pototan, where the army which had been operating in the region of my district surrendered, four companies strong, and in less than a month my regiment was ordered home, and the insurrection on the island of Panay was practically over, and other surrenders took place immediately after the surrender at Pototan.
The water cure was administered by my order several times to different natives, and through this agency I was enabled to obtain possession of many arms and very valuable information without firing a shot or shedding blood. When my regiment first reached the island it was customary and necessary, in order to accomplish anything on the offensive, to make long night marches, rounding up and capturing towns in the darkness, not only exposing our men to hardships and disease, but to gunshot wounds, as well as endangering the lives of noncombatant natives by the fire from our men. In these night attacks it was always possible to have women and children killed, and frequently the insurgent soldiers for whom we were seeking would escape, and usually few arms could be taken in this manner. From service and observation I became fully convinced that the lives of both our troops and of the natives could be saved, and munitions of war and valuable information obtained, by the discreet and humane use of the water cure. I do not, and never have believed it cruel or barbarous in any manner, and whenever it became necessary in my judgment
to administer it, the men chosen for that duty were chosen with a view to having only intelligent, careful, and humane men perform the operation. There was no secrecy about it; every officer and every man, both in my regiment and of every other regiment with which I served, knew when it was given, and I was never criticised by any officer while in the service for administering it.
The first criticism offered against me was by an enlisted man in my company, one Alfred W. Bertrand, and he is the instigator of the charges now brought against me, and did openly and repeatedly state while the regiment was en route home, and while we were at Presidio, Cal., awaiting muster out, that unless he was given a discharge bearing a character of excellent, he would prevent my appointment to a commission in the regular service, and would prevent my living in the State of Vermont, my native State, because of charges of misconduct, cruelty, and embezzlement, which he proposed to bring against me. During the muster out of the regiment he endeavored in every possible manner to create discord and cause a riot in my command, and openly boasted that at the pay table there would be a riot. He did everything in his power to get as many of the men as intoxicated as possible by furnishing money for that purpose, and by furnishing it himself. He appealed from the character given, "Very good." I was sustained by a board appointed by the regimental commander under the regulations.
I was advised by the regimental commander at the time, Col. J. T. Dickman, to bring the man before a court and have him dishonorably discharged the service. He intimidated as many men as he could, and assaulted Q. M. Sergt. Robert D. Hoyt with two accomplices for testifying against him before the board appointed to revise his character, said Sergeant Hoyt having been discharged at Iloilo, and not then being in the service. This man Bertrand performed very little duty with his company, and was a mischief-maker throughout his entire service. In spite of his unworthy conduct I gave him a character of "Very good," as he had been for many years a soldier and it was understood that he desired to reenlist.
Cornelius M. Brownell.
October 14, 1902.
Then appeared the above, Cornelius M. Brownell, and made oath that the above statement was true, before me.
E. Hunter,
Judge-Advocate, U. S. Army.